Praedicator

Verba

Saturday, July 7, 2012 - Saturday in the 13th Week in Ordinary Time

[Amos 9:11-15 and Matt 9:14-17]

No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.

There are times when I feel like those old wineskins! Every time I turn around there is a "new generation" of this or that which purports to replace whatever it is that I'm using (especially in computer matters). Furthermore, the manufacturers will begin to warn that they will no longer "support" the older product! Keeping old wine in old wineskins is comforting, but eventually the old wine must be drunk and the old skins retired. Jesus' image is a challenge to the "disciples of John" and the Pharisees who ask the question about fasting. Jesus' reply is basically that older ways of living faith must be transformed by his "new law" of love and compassion. In short, the questioners need to be transformed so that they can bear that "new wine."

It is in this context that I find myself puzzling about some of the current ferment in the church over the new translation of the Roman Missal and the restoration, even as an "extraordinary form," of the Tridentine liturgical forms. It seems to me that the insistence on an English literal translation of the Latin text of the Mass is an effort to pour the "new wine" of English (a living and constantly changing language) into the old wineskins of Latin! The same thing is true of the restoration of the Tridentine rites. The generations since Vatican II have become accustomed to the reforms instituted by the council and constitute a considerable amount of "new wine." Why, except for aesthetic and historical purposes, would one want to pour the "new wine" into those old wineskins?

I enjoy wine both old and new. I don't like to see it wasted. Restoring old liturgical practices without a sound basis other than nostalgia for a church that no longer exists seems to me to ignore Jesus' admonition. How does the new translation of the Roman Missal or the celebration of Tridentine liturgy make our communities more loving and just? AMEN